Mirrored Minds: A Thousand Years of Korean Verse​ by 9788993360486 - HTML preview

A Horse Sleeps Standing Up

My son is learning judo:

he says he spent two years

learning how to fall.

Imagine, learning the art of falling!

Those two years he spent

learning how to fall

I spent bursting myself not to fall

because the world taught me

that one fall is all you get;

you don’t get up.

I couldn't lie down

even when I fell asleep;

I was a horse who slept standing up.

Son, son, I’m ashamed!

Even flowing water leaps

down the cliff.

I dream every night,

but I’m a horse that sleeps standing up.